RICHMOND, Va. - Dominion Virginia Power has completed the
bulk of its restoration work in Northern Virginia and expects to have power
restored to all schools in its service area by Sunday night.
As of 2 p.m. Saturday, the company had restored power to 1.57
million customers. The number of power outages in Dominion's electric service
area was down from 1.8 million to about 229,000. Isabel affected about 96 percent
of customers in Tidewater, 95 percent in Central Virginia and 69 percent of
customers in Northern Virginia.
In many instances, restoring power to even a handful of customers
may now require one or two day's worth of work. Utility crews are facing continuous
challenges: having to cut trees to clear roadways, hoist 400-pound transformers,
and access off-road work locations that require the hand-over-hand movement
of supplies. Meanwhile, all work must be done while following strict safety
procedures. Among other highlights of note:
On Monday, Dominion's restoration workforce will swell
to more than 12,000 as mutual aid crews released by utilities in Washington,
D.C., and Maryland, where outages caused by Hurricane Isabel have been reduced,
join the effort.
In Central Virginia, Dominion has recorded three incidents
where private tree-cutting contractors have toppled trees into newly strung
power lines, causing repeat outages for customers.
As of Saturday, customers still without power should be
able to get individual estimated restoration dates by calling the Dominion
Customer Service Center at 1-888-667-3000. Virtually all customers should
be restored by Friday, Oct. 3.
Dominion remains concerned about customer safety, especially
from downed power lines and improper use of generators. Residents are urged
to stay at least 10 feet away from downed power lines. Schoolchildren headed
back to school and school bus stops are also reminded to stay away from downed
power lines.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers of energy,
with a diversified and integrated energy portfolio that includes 24,000 megawatts
of generation and 6.3 trillion cubic feet equivalent of proved natural gas reserves.
Dominion also serves 5 million retail energy customers in nine states
